# Suprising survey in Le Figaro

Internet issue of yesterday Figaro (relatively conservative French newspaper) published an online survey called In your ideal vision of Paris, which building would have disappeared ?
This survey proposes a first set of cultural building which dramatizes a tenacious madness from French people to want to destroy Pompidou Centre (23% out of the 11000 persons who answered to this survey), and then with a set of various other buildings, Beaugrenelle and Montparnasse Tower seem to gather all the hate for them.
I was a bit surprised that Le Figaro turned Situationnist and was more thinking to destroy buildings than to propose new ones, however it would have been interesting to add some more buildings such as l'Elysee, le Palais Bourbon (Parliament), the Senate, Notre Dame, Stock Exchange etc. all those buildings symbols of past and present power. It would have been interesting to dare such a survey in a country which claim the beggining of its revolution by the destruction of a prison, La Bastille. Instead of that, it is once more a odd to reactionnary stubborn of an old France which provokes more issues than it does solve.

As a development you can read this former post about Paris' Commune

# BLDG BLOG BOOK

BLDG BLOG BOOK is in pre-order on amazon ! It is rare that I write about a book I did not read yet but as a lot of you might also do, I appreciate Manaugh's editorial line and his investment into this blog, therefore it is not too risky for me to advice you to read it !
You can also read this interview of Manaugh by Simon Sellars, webmaster of Ballardian

# James Graham Ballard's article in The Guardian

As in the cases of the pyramids and the Taj Mahal, the Siegfried line and the Atlantic wall, death always calls on the very best architects.

This sentence is the last one in a 2006 article in The Guardian by James Graham Ballard about Modernism in architecture. Read it here.

# CRAZY MUMBAI /// Heavy transplant

Apparently Indians are not as cautious as Europeans about past architecture. Here is a lift transplant on an old building in a very straight out way which not so surprisingly pleases me a lot !

# CRAZY MUMBAI /// Panoramic from Breach Candy

Panoramic view of Breach Candy towards Malabar Hill = south upper class Mumbai district

# Guy Debord / Ni retour ni reconciliation

For those who understand French (even a bit), here is a radiophonic program created for Les Ateliers de Creation Radiophonique on France Culture about Guy Debord (especially about his voice). This is not exactly a documentary, but more a little travel around Debord on other Situationnists.

# City by David Apikian

"In 1997, I began the serie “City”, an “architectural fantasy about the urban disaster of the post-industrial era”. If you ask me why I'm not working as an architect I would answer that some mathematicians work on abstract maths and others on applied maths; some architects are building houses,others imagine abstract representation of architecture, (one time called in Russia “paper architecture”). Walking in the steps of Piranese and Iakov Chernikhov, I'm an abstract architect."
David Apikian

# Design Act’s Finalist Proposal for Singapore World Expo Pavilion on Bustler

Here is an article in Bustler about Shanghai 2010 Singapore's pavilion's competition which has seen as a finalist this surprising voxel project by Design Act.

# Kobas Laksa

Kobas Laksa is another photoshop genius who succeed to create new ambiguous imaginaries for the city splendid in their darkness. His work has been exhibited in last Venice Biennal's Polish pavilion.
See especially "The after life of buildings" and "City_Projekt_Warsaw".

# Tati Ville in NDLR

Here is a good article in NDLR about the story of how Jacques Tati succeed (with great difficulties) to build a Potemkin city for the shooting of Play Time in 1964.

# CRAZY MUMBAI /// Cast-iron building

I discovered this building during one of my Mumbai's walk, it did impress me a lot with its metallic structure and the fact that time made it evolute as you can see on the pictures. I, then learned that it was the first cast-iron building in Mumbai and that it used to be an hotel.

# Michael Wolf instant

Michael Wolf in Chicago shooting the Marina City
see also this former article